Infuriatingly, URL shortners are often used in QR codes because they have a character limit-ish (longer strings make for more detailed QR codes, which are harder to scan from further away so it's a trade-off). but if the QR points to a shortened link then it's more difficult to assess where a QR code is pointing without blindly following the link.

[–] 2910000@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

My biggest bugbear relating to this is the lack of a short text alternative for QR codes, especially with long URLs.
If the URL is too long to fit into a QR code, then it's also too long for me to type in manually!

[–] Electricd@lemmybefree.net 1 points 10 hours ago

eh, you can have pretty long strings already in QR code as compared to normal, just like WiFi passwords for example

[–] _g_be@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I think I like an alternative that uses full words instead of a string of no sense symbols and mixed case letters.

Something like what What 3 Words does but for short URLs. That would be easy to convey and type

[–] 2910000@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That's a very good idea.
Beside the number of permutations it gives, another benefit of using three words is they could form the border of the QR code, with the fourth side being the domain name

[–] _g_be@lemmy.world 2 points 20 hours ago

Yessss